When my first child was born, we only had one cat. He was very attentive during pregnancy then left a dead mouse as a gift right by the crib. He was a mouser when he was young, but hadn’t hunted in a few years, so it was obvious that he understood there was a new “kitten” to take care of.
When he was gone and we had one of the cats we have now, I had my second child. Now this cat had never hunted so much ad a spider, but she caught her only prey to date, another mouse, and left it beside a gift bag of baby stuff I had from work.
I could have definitely done without dead mice, but I was pretty touched that they understood and wanted to do something “nice” for the babies.
This only happens if the cat owner bothers making a connection with their cat. If all the owner does is feed the cat, the cat is only going to care about the food you give.
I’ve lived with many cats before. One of the cats I had was a street rescue. When she was pregnant she chose my bed to give birth in, probably because I rescued her and she felt safe with me.
This is very true. I had a cat that recently passed away at 17. While I’ve had cats my entire life, none had an attachment like this one. It followed commands and would dote around me like a dog. He would even get upset if I gave other cats more attention than him. So naturally we bonded more since it was easier to bond with this cat as he sought attention. So there was a cycle of him paying attention to me so I paid attention to him. Now I want to be clear, my other cats also loved me very much, but this was different.
So when it was his time, it was one of the saddest things I ever experienced. Other cats when they passed away would try to hide, apparently this is a natural instinct to protect their families from disease and predators when they leave a corpse. But not this cat. All he wanted was to be by my side as he was passing away. It was clear he knew and would meow when he couldn’t find me, which was largely because he couldn’t really move since he was dying. When the vet came to put him down, his last action was to look around the room to make sure the whole family was there, then he rested his head and waited for his end. That was heart breaking. His love for me and our family was so great that he went against his own base instincts, I have never seen that before.
That story was so beautiful. I’m tearing up now. Thank you for sharing. 🫂
Thanks, honestly it was kind of nice writing it all out. I guess in some ways I’ve been bottling my feelings about all of this.
“So I built her a birthing nest and kept showing it to her and then she didn’t even use it! Can you fucking believe it!!”
Honestly though, very sweet.
I don’t even care if this is true, I just fucking love cats.
Cats are so community-oriented. My late cat used to sit in the hallway and cry until everyone came together in one room, then she would finally go to sleep. Cats might not be as up-front about their affections, but they are absolutely looking out for you.
The kitty is going to be so disappointed though when her human doesn’t give birth in the nest she built with great effort…
I want to see the nest you’re obviously going to give birth in!!
Yeah, I’d like to know if the cat was capable of scaling her own nest up for her human.
Some wholesome internet right here
we have a special relationship with cats. we feed and house them, and in return they act as a constant reminder of what we should be. suck it, dogs :P
My cat spends the entire day hiding from my dog, occasionally sitting on the other side of the room as him taunting him.
My dog desperately wants to be the cats friend.
Every morning my cat slowly gets into my bed to lick my head to let me know the sun is up and his crunchies are empty, and he now smacks the shit out of the dog before running off to start his day.
Idk if he’s a constant reminder of what I should be, but he’s definitely a constant.
aww, we don’t have a /c/catsareassholes yet! i’d create it myself, but i don’t have the time nor temperament to moderate a community.
Getting a dog to like you is easy, but a cat…a cat you have to earn their affection.
Cats are like people, they get overstimulated and build relationships (they can also have trauma). Also getting a cat to like you is easy if you know how to communicate with cats.
Or have Moon Sugar.
